Succession of Digital Goods. A Comparative Legal Study

Mariusz Fras

Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Silesia , Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0033-6909


Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present possible solutions to the problem of access to digital contents left by a deceased user of Internet services under different European legal systems. Discussion of this issue from a comparative perspective will allow the drawing of general conclusions about the direction de lege lata in which European legislation is heading. In my opinion there should be dedicated legal provisons introduced into the polish civil code which would pertain to digital goods. This would also facilitate the harmonization of inheritance matters in a European perspective. Technological development requires amending the civil code to fit changing reality.

Keywords:

digital content, digital state, Facebook, strictly personal rights, heirs.

Breczko, Anetta, and Marta Andruszkiewicz. “Prawo spadkowe w obliczu postępu technologicznego (nowe wyzwania w XXI wieku).” Białostockie Studia Prawnicze 22, no. 2 (2017): 27–46. (Crossref)

Mądel, Mateusz. “Dostęp do treści cyfrowych zmarłego użytkownika usług internetowych na tle orzeczenia Federalnego Trybunału Sprawiedliwości w Niemczech.” Transformacje Prawa Prywatnego 2 (2020): 125–44.

Mądel, Mateusz. Następstwo prawne treści cyfrowych na wypadek śmierci. Warsaw: C.H. Beck, 2018.

Navas, Susana. “Digital Content of the Inheritance: Remarks on the Judgement of the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) of 12 July 2018 from Standpoint of Spanish Law.” European Review of Private Law 5 (2019): 1159–68.

Pierer, Joachim. “Inheritability of Digital Content under Austrian Law.” European Review of Private Law 27, no. 5 (2019): 1115–29.

Swinnen, K.K.E.C.T. “The German Bundesgerichtshof’s Decision on Access to the Facebook Account of Your Deceased Child from a Belgian Law Point of View.” European Review of Private Law 27, no. 5 (2019): 1131–48.

Szulewski, Paweł. “Śmierć 2.0 – problematyka dóbr cyfrowych post mortem.” In Non omnis moriar. Osobiste i majątkowe aspekty prawne śmierci człowieka. Zagadnienia wybrane, edited by Jacek Gołaczyński, Jacek Mazurkiewicz, Jarosław Turłukowski, and Daniel Karkut, 730–749. Wrocław: Oficyna Prawnicza, 2015.

Tweehuysen, Valérie. “Digital Afterlife Under Dutch Law: The German Case on Inheriting a Facebook Account From a Dutch Perspective.” European Review of Private 27, no. 5 (2019): 1149–1158.

Wszołek, Anna. “Między Facebookiem a Instagramem. Wirtualny wizerunek czy prawo majątkowe? – analiza dóbr cyfrowych in concreto.” Internetowy Przegląd Prawniczy TBSP UJ 3 (2017): 130–140.

Załucki, Mariusz. Kodeks cywilny. Komentarz. Wyd. 2. Warsaw: Legalis, 2019.

Download

Published
2021-12-07


Fras, M. (2021). Succession of Digital Goods. A Comparative Legal Study. Review of European and Comparative Law, 47(4), 67–81. https://doi.org/10.31743/recl.12859

Mariusz Fras  kancelaria-fras@o2.pl
Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Silesia

Dr. habil. Mariusz Fras, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Silesia; correspondence address: ul. Kochanowski 6/1, 40-035 Katowice, Poland; e-mail: kancelaria-fras@o2.pl; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0033-6909.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0033-6909



License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.